Robert Miller - Indochina and Vietnam: The Thirty-five Year War, 1940-1975

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Robert L. Miller

and

Dennis Wainstock

Indochina and Vietnam

The Thirty-Five-Year War
19401975

Enigma Books

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without permission of Enigma Books.

Published by Enigma Books, New York

Copyright 2013 by Dennis Wainstock and Robert L. Miller

First Edition

e-ISBN: 978-1-936274-66-6

Publisher's Cataloging-In-Publication Data

Miller, Robert L. (Robert Lawrence), 1945-

Indochina and Vietnam : the thirty-five-year war, 1940-1975 / Robert L. Miller and Dennis Wainstock. -- 1st ed.

p. : ill. ; cm.

Issued also as an ebook.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Indochinese War, 1946-1954. 2. Vietnam War, 1961-1975. 3. Indochina--History--1945- 4. Vietnam--History--1945-1975. I. Wainstock, Dennis, 1947- II. Title.

DS526.7 .M55 2013

959.05/3

Contents

To those who served

T he Indochina and Vietnam Wars followed one another over a thirty-five-year span, lasting from 1940 to 1975; yet these two closely related conflicts are usually treated separately, usually in isolation. For most Americans, in fact, the Vietnam War begins in 1965, as a consequence of the Tonkin Gulf Incident. This book attempts to recast the reconstruction and interpretation of both conflicts into a single historical event for the student and the general reader. The mass of material now publishedincluding archival documents, memoirs, and individual studies in various countries and as many languagesis so vast that an attempt at a comprehensive yet manageable account of the long war in Southeast Asia has become a far greater challenge.

The authors have attempted to solve this problem by offering a succinct and useful overview that doesnt omit important details and takes the latest and mostly excellent scholarship into account within the space available. With the opening of new archives, particularly in North Vietnam, to a certain extent, the reader is offered access to far more complex background on the subject than was previously possible. No longer can we rely upon an exclusively America-centric narrative in discussing Vietnam and Indochina. This new information both enriches and complicates our understanding of the broad evolution of the conflict and its far reaching consequences. The authors have chosen to remain close to the facts, avoid excessive interpretation, and concentrate on the issues and personalities, while taking into account the most significant recent studies available.